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Monday, April 22, 2013

April 21, 2013 Faith In the Modern Age: Living On the Earth

Psalm
24:1-6

If you have traveled along Route 2 in the northern panhandle of West
Virginia you traveled through my home territory.Traveling on I-70 you can exit at Wheeling and travel north
along the Ohio River for about 15 miles and you will come to my hometown.

If you have traveled that route you probably haven’t forgotten the
scenery, which is not at all attractive.

Steel mills, almost all of which are now closed, line both sides of
the river.Most of the area has
been in great decline for years, but oddly, one thing has improved – the air
quality.It is no exaggeration to
say that as I was growing up we seldom saw a really blue sky.Most days it was a dirty grey color
because of the tremendous amount of pollutants added to the air by the steel
mills.In the mornings it would be
hard to see across the river because the smog from the mills would settle in
the valley.

Driving along the river through the northern portion of our county
took you directly past a coke plant.Not the soft drink, but an element that is important in making
steel.Coke is carbonized coal,
and it burns at an extremely high temperature, which is ideal for making
steel.Driving by that plant in
the summers we would roll up the windows in the car, close the vents (we didn’t
have air conditioning), and hold our breath.Oddly enough, right across the road was an ice cream stand –
the Dairy Owl – where we would often stop for ice cream.You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten
ice cream while holding your breath and trying to keep coke ash from landing on
your cone.To be honest, I didn’t
like living in that geographic area.

It’s uncomfortable for me to say that, because that is my home, and
because steel is a part of my family heritage.My dad was a steelworker, my older brother was for a while, and
my younger brother is still. The steel mills educated me, fed me, clothed me,
put a roof over my head, and paid my medical bills.But the pollution became oppressive to me.From the time I was young I knew I
wanted to move away from there and to a place that was more pleasant to live.One of the reasons why I so enjoy
living in this area is because of the lack of heavy industry of the type that
surrounded me when I was younger.

As we continue our series Faith
in the Modern Age we come to the topic of Living On the Earth.

I am often puzzled at the contentiousness that erupts when the
environment becomes a topic of discussion. Mention ecology or environmentalism and you will find that an
argument can begin rather quickly.

As we talk about the beautiful world created by God, a world we have
been charged to care for as stewards, I want to look at the question from some
basic spiritual truths.My first
instinct was to load this message with a lot of facts and figures and
statistics, but I changed my mind.I think we get lost in them, even though there are many to share, and
many of them are quite disturbing.But suffice it to say that with more than seven billion people now
living upon this earth we have arrived at a tipping point about the future
health and welfare of this world that is our home.

1.Scripture affirms the goodness and beauty of God’s creation.

Some of the most profound
words of Scripture are found in the first chapter of Genesis – And God saw that it was good.Those words are the great affirmation
of the writer of Genesis, given at multiple points as God continues his
creative work.As God moved
through the process of creation he continued to proclaim that it was good.As he formed the land and the seas, God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:10).After creating the plants and vegetation, God saw that it was good (1:12).Considering his handiwork in creating
the stars and planets, God saw that it
was good (1:18).At his
creation of the sea life and the birds, God
saw that it was good (1:21).Watching the tremendous variety of animals God again proclaims that it was good (1:25).After the creation of humanity and
considering all of his work, God saw all
that he had made, and it was very good (1:31).

And God saw that it was good.It
was good.It was good.I’m
afraid that was is more and more
becoming the operative word – was.Past tense.I wonder what proclamation God would make today about his
creation.I am certain he still
affirms its goodness, but might he say, it’s
still good, but it’s not in great shape.

2.God calls humanity to stewardship of his creation, not
ownership.

Imagine owning a beautiful home, a home that is your dream
home.Imagine you get a new job
requiring you to move to another location, but you don’t want to sell your
house so you lease your home to another family.You implore them to take good care of your home and you
trust they will do so.Imagine
returning to your home months later, only to find holes in the wall, broken
windows, a yard that is overrun with weeds and neglected flower beds, and
evidence of neglect and abuse are everywhere.How would you respond?

This is analogous to how we have treated God’s creation, I’m afraid.Given the blessing of living on this
good, beautiful earth, humanity was charged with the care for God’s
creation.We have confused caring,
I fear, for owning and abusing.Nowhere in Scripture are we told that we own creation. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,the
world, and all who live in it proclaims the psalmist.That’s a pretty clear statement of
ownership.Scripture makes
very clear that God is the creator and
owner of the world; we are his stewards, charged with caring for this world in
which we live.

Considering the precarious situation of our environment, we have been
rather poor stewards of the earth, and are much like the poor tenant who does
not care for the home of a landowner.

3.Simpler lifestyles will help to heal God’s earth.

I find that more often than not, I am thinking about how to get
something else I want rather than thinking about what I can give away or what I
can do for someone else.This is
part of the difficulty in talking about caring for creation, because we are all
intertwined with an economy of consumption that pushes us to use up rather than
to conserve.

Living in a consumer-driven economy is tough, because it becomes
almost a question of patriotism to go out and spend money and consume.If we stop consuming, the economy
tanks.

But I fear that if we do not increase our move toward simplicity the
choices we face will be imposed upon us by necessity.If everyone on earth could consume at the rate at which we
do, the earth would be in truly great difficulty, as we would move beyond
sustainability.

In Luke 12:13-21 we read the parable Jesus tells of the rich fool –

13 Someone in the
crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with
me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter
between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard
against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of
possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a
certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to
himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’18 “Then he said, ‘This is
what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will
store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty
of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be
merry.”’20 “But God
said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’21 “This is how it will be
with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

This parable is representative of the attitude of humanity for too
much of history, especially recent history.In an attempt to gain more and more, little consideration is
given to the consequences of accumulating as much as possible.The rich man of whom Jesus speaks exhibits
an attitude that has little concern for anyone but himself.

In keeping with its emphasis on stewardship, the Scriptures remind
us that accumulation is not to be the goal of life.In fact, it is the drive to accumulate and build a larger
and larger abundance that has led to so much of the environmental degradation
that we now face.

4.Stewardship is ultimately a spiritual issue.

I think stewardship certainly has political and economic implications,
but it is really, I believe, at the heart, a spiritual issue.Looking through the lens of faith we
are reminded the goal of life is not to accumulate, but to use wisely and to
live lives of giving and generosity.Faith reminds us that we are not given the earth as a possession to use
as we see fit but as God’s creation for which we are given the responsibility
to tend and for which we are to care.

One of the troubling matters about today’s environmentalism is the
absence of the faith community.Many churches are simply not involved in the work of caring for our
world.More than anyone, it should
be those of us in faith who are moved to care for God’s earth, because we
recognize our call to be stewards.

As Disciples we are a little ahead of some other groups, but we
still have some way to go.We do,
thankfully, have the Green Chalice ministry that encourages us as individuals
and congregations to take seriously the call to care for God’s creation.

I will close this morning with words from the great writer Wendell Berry
–

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and
demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice
and mercy.

...the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after
all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to
foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.